Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas will start a four-day truce on Friday morning with some Israeli hostages released later that day, mediators in Qatar said.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari told reporters in Doha on Thursday the list of all civilians that would be released from Gaza had been agreed upon. A comprehensive ceasefire in southern and northern Gaza will start on Friday at 7 a.m. local time, with some hostages to be released at 4 p.m.
He said he expected 13 hostages in Gaza — women and children — would be released. Details on the Palestinians to be released Friday from Israeli custody were not revealed at the news conference.
Qatar, where some Hamas officials reside, has acted as a mediator, along with Egypt and the U.S., since Hamas launched attacks on Oct. 7 in southern Israel.
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The first truce in the seven-week-old war is meant to be accompanied, over a period of days, by the release of 50 women and children hostages captured by militants who raided Israel, in exchange for 150 Palestinian detainees from Israeli jails. Israel has said it believes some 240 people were taken hostage, and four people have previously been released.
Al-Ansari referred to the agreement as the “first glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel” since Oct. 7.
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West Bank Palestinians could be released
Those in prison in Israel who could be released include many teenage boys detained during a wave of violence in the West Bank in 2022 or 2023 and charged with offences such as stone-throwing or disturbing public order, according to a list of eligible prisoners published by Israel’s Justice Ministry. Israel currently holds nearly 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offences.
Hamas said hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel are to be allowed to enter Gaza every day as part of the deal. Supplies would also reach northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive, for the first time, Hamas said.
Israeli Channel 12 TV reported that as part of the deal, Israel will allow a “significant” amount of fuel and humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but did not specify how much. Israel has severely limited the amount of aid, especially fuel, allowed into Gaza during the war, prompting dire shortages of water, food and fuel to run generators.
The delay to the start of the truce meant another day of worry for Israeli relatives of the hostages who say they still know nothing about the fate of missing loved ones, and of fear for Palestinian families trapped inside the Gaza combat zone.
“We need to know they are alive, if they’re OK. It’s the minimum,” said Gilad Korngold, desperate for any information about the fate of seven of his family members, including his three-year-old granddaughter, believed to be among the hostages.
Both sides have said they will go back to fighting once the truce is over.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after gunmen from Hamas burst across the border fence on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people. Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed by Israeli bombardment, around 40 per cent of them children, according to health authorities in the Hamas-ruled territory.
24:59When artists aren’t allowed to speak about the war in Gaza
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Al-Shifa doctor in Israeli custody
Columns of black smoke could be seen rising above northern Gaza’s war zone from across the fence in Israel as daylight broke on Thursday.
The Israeli military said it had launched 300 airstrikes in the past day, and sounded sirens warning of cross-border rocket launches by Palestinian armed groups. Palestinian media reported Israeli strikes in the northern areas as well as in the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israel has told residents of the north to seek shelter.
Palestinian media reported at least 15 people killed in airstrikes on Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans are sheltering from the Israeli advance in the north. Reuters could not immediately verify the toll there.
Meanwhile, Hamas said staff at Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, had been detained by Israeli forces.
“We strongly condemn the arrest of the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salamiya, and a number of medical personnel who remained in the hospital to facilitate the evacuation of the remaining patients and wounded there,” it said in a statement.
International observers have raised concerns about the fate of the hospitals, especially in Gaza’s northern half, where all medical facilities have ceased functioning with patients, staff and displaced people trapped inside.
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Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan of the organization Gaza Medic Voices told CBC News Network on Thursday he was dismayed by the development.
“I cannot tell you how angry and how upset I am to hear of this happening,” he said. “Every day I cannot imagine how things are getting worse, but they are.”
The Israeli military said Abu Salamiya had been in charge of the sprawling complex as Hamas militants built up a network of military infrastructure and stored weapons inside the hospital and its grounds.